I am posting this on behalf of my cousin who is a staunch believer in *everything*. I, OTOH, am a huge skeptic. However, she has something going on in her house that has even me baffled. She lives at home w/ her parents. Her parents have separate bedrooms (snoring issue). The mom (my aunt) has been complaining for a very long time that she hears noises, voices, and heavy breathing in her room when she's in there at night. Skeptical me just chalked it up to her being half-asleep and "hallucinating." This past weekend, my cousin decided to put her iPhone in my aunt's room and record. She played it back and was scared shitless by what she heard. She e-mailed me the recording. I listened to it through headphones and at one point heard what sounded like growling. It sounded very animal-like. They have no pets. I just chalked it up to the noises coming from my aunt as she was sleeping (heavy breathing, grunting in her sleep). My cousin recorded again earlier today with no one in the room. She sent it to me, and the growling occurred again! I can't chalk it up to anything reasonable anymore. I normally brush this stuff off, but I am a little concerned about what might be going on. Any thoughts/opinions would be greatly appreciated!

Clearly the ghosts of snorers past have invaded the bedroom, perhaps condemning the entire house. Snorers are stubborn, even death cannot eliminate the horrendous, life-defying sounds that come out of their heads. But terrible tortures have taken place in that bedroom, the departed snorers were once abused by impatient and even cruel wives, who were known to pummel, elbow and even pour ice water on the noisy, grunting, cacophonous creatures whom they had once imagined to be objects of romance.Disappointments make strange bedfellows, and strange bedfellows are not only cursed in their own time, but come back as banshees to wail and gnash their teeth at the scene of the crimes.

NMB

Skepticism: " Norma, you poor sad lonely alcoholic. You entire life is devoted to interrupting other people's posts on this forum, regardless of the topic, to tell them what's wrong with them. The irony is, here you are doing it again, with this very post. Your fanciful card games, movie sojourns and exciting overseas trips, that all take place within the four walls of an aged care retirement home, do not suggest your own children offered you the care, I gave my parents."

Actually, if there is a fan in the room (especially a ceiling one) one major thing that should be done immediately is to check the fan. Make absolutely sure the blades are attached firmly and that it has the right balance.

My aunt had a similar problem and believed the apartment was haunted, until after one of the blades came loose and smashed up a glass front case where she kept various things. The imbalance and shift of the fan tends to make some surprisingly animal sounding noises and it can be extremely dangerous, even possibly ripping itself free of the ceiling if it's imbalanced enough.

Then check the pipes and anything that might have some old toys in it.

I hear "voices" and "growling" in my own room sometimes, but I know the source -- there's a tree branch that has grown too much and scrapes against the outside of the house. The twigs make soft but higher-pitched "voice" sounds, and the thicker branch makes the "growling" sounds.

But that's just my case. I'm only providing it as an example to check for, because I expect there may be many possible causes of such sounds. Two others I would look at are the heating ducts, and the water pipes. My sister's furnace used to "talk" when it started up, and my parents' water pipes make it sound like someone's walking down the stairs at night. (It's laughable only because we know what these things are, of course, and so nobody is afraid of them!)

I often hear knocking and scratching sounds which are caused by birds and squirrels on the roof. Or my neighbor. Who also barks occasionally.Any weird squeaking, gargling and growling usually come from my own stomach and gut.

scrmbldggs wrote:I often hear knocking and scratching sounds which are caused by birds and squirrels on the roof. Or my neighbor. Who also barks occasionally.Any weird squeaking, gargling and growling usually come from my own stomach and gut.

scrmbldggs wrote:I often hear knocking and scratching sounds which are caused by birds and squirrels on the roof. Or my neighbor. Who also barks occasionally.Any weird squeaking, gargling and growling usually come from my own stomach and gut.

It's happened to me. I was sleeping on one bedroom and besides me was another bed my kids were sleeping in. I woke up in the middle of the night, being pulled down by something, I saw nothing, it was like an energy or force because I only felt and saw my body moving down the bed, I pulled myself up and turned around on my stomach and I heard growling noises almost like those that you see in dinosaur movies or of beasts, that one and last time that ever happened to me.

Only your honest inquiry and intellect will find an answer..........or maybe not. And thats a reality too. The unknown. The ambiguity. One of events: who cares? Totally irrelevant if it doesn't happen regularly. Like the rising of the dead.

Real Name: bobbo the existential pragmatic evangelical anti-theist and Class Warrior.Asking: What is the most good for the most people?Sample Issue: Should the Feds provide all babies with free diapers?

chi77312 wrote: I woke up in the middle of the night, being pulled down by something, I saw nothing, it was like an energy or force because I only felt and saw my body moving down the bed, .

Good news. This is a classical claim and indication of Sleep Paralysis. " Bed Sheets Slowly Pulled Off!" .

"Out of nowhere I started to hear strange screeching cat noises, like a cat's mating noise right in my ear, at this point I really felt like I was being possessed by something. Then I remember looking up to the ceiling and seeing a dark shadows hovering above my head but I couldn't move to do anything! After that, I felt my sheets move. Immediately looking down to them I saw my sheets slowly being pulled away from me, this was when the panic really set in."http://www.end-your-sleep-deprivation.c ... z4fsBBLmwE

I suggest you do a bit of a search on the internet and talk to your general practitioner about it, for simple solutions.

I have suffered the sheet pulling thing, but didn't hear the noise. The time I did hear a noise ( A wailing ghost dragging its chains closer to my bedroom ) it turned out to be my cat and next door's cat having a standoff outside my bedroom. The cats hissing was the chains being dragged and the wail was.....cats wailing.

Maybe this is a really late response to this blog but recently I had listened to my grandmother recount an episode from the previous night where she experienced a non human growling from outside her window and was certain that the nature of it had been demonic.

While I understand that this forum is for skeptics I thought having been one for much of my life I would offer my 2 cents. I found this blog after looking up similar experiences to my grandmother's. As I said I was a skeptic for a long time and often times did as many of you have in this forum explained and found logic a comfort and also used humor to express my superior intelligence and claim the intellectual high ground above those that would believe in such fairy tales. Being a scientist and having a strong education in the sciences this seemed natural. But after experiencing things completely sober and that I could not explain I realized how foolish I was to either presume I could possibly know with any certainly the absolute absence of any kind of spiritual realm or the existence of a god and how even more so to acknowledge the existence of evil and perhaps even of the devil yet not that of God.

Long story short I am a strong Catholic and enjoy it even more so as also a scientist and strong believer in evolution as I see them both to be beautifully comparable. Creation and evolution are 2 sides of the same coin. And to those that struggle to cling to your logic I assure you there will come a day when it will fail you and I pity those that experience that while also staring straight into the eyes of the devil and yet resist the saving grace of God. Some of you will resist and while may be convinced will never find faith some of you will and will be witness. For those unfortunate souls that die having never answered the call I will pray for and again I feel pity for you. All are called and few chosen. In the end all knees bend to the One and True God. And for those of you brave enough to read this far: fear not for even the devil is but a pawn God uses to bring glory unto His Kingdom and His thrown from which He reigns forever and ever. Amen yall. Peace out.

jaylion68 wrote:Maybe this is a really late response to this blog but recently I had listened to my grandmother recount an episode from the previous night where she experienced a non human growling from outside her window and was certain that the nature of it had been demonic.

While I understand that this forum is for skeptics I thought having been one for much of my life I would offer my 2 cents. I found this blog after looking up similar experiences to my grandmother's. As I said I was a skeptic for a long time and often times did as many of you have in this forum explained and found logic a comfort and also used humor to express my superior intelligence and claim the intellectual high ground above those that would believe in such fairy tales. Being a scientist and having a strong education in the sciences this seemed natural. But after experiencing things completely sober and that I could not explain I realized how foolish I was to either presume I could possibly know with any certainly the absolute absence of any kind of spiritual realm or the existence of a god and how even more so to acknowledge the existence of evil and perhaps even of the devil yet not that of God.

Long story short I am a strong Catholic and enjoy it even more so as also a scientist and strong believer in evolution as I see them both to be beautifully comparable. Creation and evolution are 2 sides of the same coin. And to those that struggle to cling to your logic I assure you there will come a day when it will fail you and I pity those that experience that while also staring straight into the eyes of the devil and yet resist the saving grace of God. Some of you will resist and while may be convinced will never find faith some of you will and will be witness. For those unfortunate souls that die having never answered the call I will pray for and again I feel pity for you. All are called and few chosen. In the end all knees bend to the One and True God. And for those of you brave enough to read this far: fear not for even the devil is but a pawn God uses to bring glory unto His Kingdom and His thrown from which He reigns forever and ever. Amen yall. Peace out.

jaylion68 wrote:Maybe this is a really late response to this blog but recently I had listened to my grandmother recount an episode from the previous night where she experienced a non human growling from outside her window and was certain that the nature of it had been demonic.

While I understand that this forum is for skeptics I thought having been one for much of my life I would offer my 2 cents. I found this blog after looking up similar experiences to my grandmother's. As I said I was a skeptic for a long time and often times did as many of you have in this forum explained and found logic a comfort and also used humor to express my superior intelligence and claim the intellectual high ground above those that would believe in such fairy tales. Being a scientist and having a strong education in the sciences this seemed natural. But after experiencing things completely sober and that I could not explain I realized how foolish I was to either presume I could possibly know with any certainly the absolute absence of any kind of spiritual realm or the existence of a god and how even more so to acknowledge the existence of evil and perhaps even of the devil yet not that of God.

Long story short I am a strong Catholic and enjoy it even more so as also a scientist and strong believer in evolution as I see them both to be beautifully comparable. Creation and evolution are 2 sides of the same coin. And to those that struggle to cling to your logic I assure you there will come a day when it will fail you and I pity those that experience that while also staring straight into the eyes of the devil and yet resist the saving grace of God. Some of you will resist and while may be convinced will never find faith some of you will and will be witness. For those unfortunate souls that die having never answered the call I will pray for and again I feel pity for you. All are called and few chosen. In the end all knees bend to the One and True God. And for those of you brave enough to read this far: fear not for even the devil is but a pawn God uses to bring glory unto His Kingdom and His thrown from which He reigns forever and ever. Amen yall. Peace out.

It is throne, not thrown.

Yer doin' it wrong, but I fix't it.

jaylion68 wrote:...to those that struggle to cling to your logic I assure you there will come a day when it will fail you....

Logic fails me every day. I have to work at it.

Once upon a time, I would hear a voice whenever I climbed the basement stairs in my parents' home. Although I could recognize it as a voice, I couldn't make out what it was saying. This happened again and again. Some days I would stand there halfway up the stairs, straining to make out what it was. It took me weeks to figure out it was the furnace.

In the meantime I supposed I could have leapt for the god-of-the-gaps conclusion. Luckily, I didn't, or I might be worshipping Lennox.

chi77312 wrote:It's happened to me. I was sleeping on one bedroom and besides me was another bed my kids were sleeping in. I woke up in the middle of the night, being pulled down by something, I saw nothing, it was like an energy or force because I only felt and saw my body moving down the bed, I pulled myself up and turned around on my stomach and I heard growling noises almost like those that you see in dinosaur movies or of beasts, that one and last time that ever happened to me.

Classic hypnagogic hallucinations. Contrary to popular opinion, you can sometimes move during them. I had them for nearly a year before finding a rational explanation and a solution, and they scared the life out of me even as I knew they were not real. Among some of the more memorable ones:

• A 7-foot-tall insectile being straight out of one of Giger's illustrations standing next to my bed. It had a chitinous shell like a beetle, large curling antennae, and its underside (which was facing me) was filled with chittering legs. I was lying on my back and couldn't move during this one, but I was able to scream and wake up my daughter, who was in the next room.

• I was lying on my side for this one, facing the empty side of the bed. Reclining across the top of the bed along the pillows was a robed and hooded figure. Its face was hidden in the cowl of the hood, but its hands were not entirely human. The skin on them was pitch black, and its fingers were elongated with strangely swollen knuckles. It held a piece of parchment which it kept unfolding to reveal a bright red symbol, then folding back up again. I could neither move nor make noise.

• This time, I was lying on my other side, facing the edge of the bed. Right next to me was a stark white geometric figure that appeared to be made of sharp bones. Although there were no visible joints, it was able to reconfigure itself into different shapes. The noise it made while doing so sounded like heavy stones rubbing together. I reached out toward it, and it moved away from me toward, then through the wall.

Trust me on this: I'm as skeptical as it's possible to be, and these hallucinations made me feel like I was losing my mind. But I never looked for an explanation that wasn't completely rational. I reported them to my primary care physician, and he immediately ordered an MRI of my brain to rule out TIAs and other trauma, as well as a comprehensive blood workup.

Finally, he referred me for a full sleep study, since I wasn't getting any sleep. They wired me up for the night and all the next day. The nighttime study allowed for an eight-hour period, while the daytime study required me to attempt a 15-minute nap every two hours. The readout showed alpha wave intrusion into delta sleep—a common symptom of one of my chronic pain disorders—resulting in chronic sleep deprivation. Since I started treatment, I no longer have hypnagogic hallucinations.

However, it did provide me with an idea and material for a short horror story.

There was a case like this is LA. They picked up the growling on tape. Very impressive. Then they put one observer on a hill and another in the house. Synchronized time pieces kept track of when the growls were heard and when semis rolled down a nearby highway. One-to-one match. Infrasound, you may have ... heard ... of it.

Gawdzilla Sama wrote:There was a case like this is LA. They picked up the growling on tape. Very impressive. Then they put one observer on a hill and another in the house. Synchronized time pieces kept track of when the growls were heard and when semis rolled down a nearby highway. One-to-one match. Infrasound, you may have ... heard ... of it.

Sound echoes strangely on my property, probably a combination of its location in a hollow, the perennial brook in my front yard, and the way the neighbors' houses are set up. Because it's fairly rural and in the foothills of the Berkshires, every type of wildlife that makes its home in my area eventually makes its way to my yard.

One night, I heard what sounded like a woman's desperate scream. Ten seconds later, my neighbor texted me in a panic. After asking her if her cats were outside, I told her not to worry, that it was a fisher cat. I cautioned her that she shouldn't let her cats outside after 10pm or so. I've seen the coyotes run as a pack right down our road as if they own it, and I've currently got at least one red fox and one bobcat living in my yard.

Wildlife noises can sound both human and inhuman, especially if they echo. And my neighbor was one of those people who believed strongly in the supernatural. She swore my house was haunted. I've lived here 20 years, and the only weird thing that's ever happened is the door to my china closet periodically opens by itself. However, it's a freestanding one with four legs standing on a 60-year-old red oak floor. Its lock is a simple turnkey bolt. It's simple to see that the vibrations of two people and two dogs walking across the floor cause the brass bolt to slowly move out of the housing until it's no longer holding the door shut. Then, when the door opens fully, gravity causes the bolt to slide back into "locked" position. A gullible person would think that the door "magically" opened while locked. Nope. It's just physics working on a worn, antique locking mechanism.

There's a rabbit currently constructing a nest in my back yard. I didn't know rabbits built nests like that. She's plucking soft dry grass and carrying it under the broadleaf plants that grow against the building. And she's big and fairly fearless.

Gord wrote:There's a rabbit currently constructing a nest in my back yard. I didn't know rabbits built nests like that. She's plucking soft dry grass and carrying it under the broadleaf plants that grow against the building. And she's big and fairly fearless.

I'm scared, hold me.

Do you happen to live near the Cave of Caerbannog? The cottontails in my yard will stand fearless in my front yard and casually eat weeds while my dogs are slavering and barking at the ends of their leashes a scant five feet away. I keep expecting one of them to hop over like Bugs Bunny and go